August 23 - Day 5

Wake up to blue skies and sunshine, windy but warm.  Marion and McLean work their magic at the griddle and we are served a fry-up breakfast of potato scones, streaky bacon and eggs, toast and fresh nectarines.  They have threatened us with black pudding and haggis but have relented. Very enjoyable.  McLean takes us on a local tour of our area digs in Whitecraigs.  First stop Rouken Glen Park.  Pat spent many hours walking and exploring this park after dropping the kids at school.  We walk around a bit and find the lovely walled garden is closed to the public with renovations happening inside  There are families with kids and dogs everywhere, everyone is enjoying this respite of sun and warm winds.  We pass by the Garden Center where Pat and friends enjoyed many cups of tea and chat.  Our favorite Chinese restaurant is still there in an old stone building, it was decorated in McIntosh theme.  We drive past the boat house and we can see the island in the center of the small lake.  Many happy memories in the park.  Next stop, 5 Lethington Road, the house we lived in.  Looks very much the same, there is someone living in the house, not sure if it is still a rental or has sold.  Looking at the driveway was a reminder that it was not much more than a luge edged in rocks.  Yikes, no wonder Pat had a perpetual fender benders coming out of the drive.  We could still clearly see Whitecraigs Golf Course across the street.  Next stop Broomhill Kirk (Church of Scotland), the church we attended.  Still looks the same, very lovely building and so well cared for.  The Parish Hall sits next door, it brings back memories of summer ‘play schemes’ with the neighborhood children acting out plays and doing crafts.  Next stop Kirkhill Primary School where Brenna and Seth attended.  Still a lovely little school and looks very much the same from the outside.  It sits tucked into the neighborhood and they have added an obstacle course and eco-garden area for student play and plantings.  Able to peak in the front door and see mannequins dressed in the school uniforms as a sampling for students to know the dress code.  Still navy and or gray, but didn’t see the tie like Brenna and Seth had to wear.  Next stop Green Bank Gardens, operated by the Scottish Trust.  This is one of our very favorite places, a country manner in miniature with working farm buildings and carriage house.  This is an oasis of green space, the buildings surrounded by open fields and old trees.  One of their claims to fame is selling plants that are grown on the property.  We stop long enough to take a few pictures and visit the gift shop- tea room.  The Scots are so civilized we are never far from a cup of tea and biscuits!  The building looks like an old byre or barn.  It is has been built out of stacks of sandstone with a high ceiling.  The walls are a couple feet thick, original and very rustic. Pat finds a stash of spurdles (porridge stirrers), a must have for every kitchen!  So far we have stayed true to only buying Scottish made products and will continue so to do.  We head down the old Ayr road traveling south west.  We follow the spine of the Eaglesham Moor, the land opens wide and treeless.   The moor is covered in thick clumps of purple heather, bloomed purple thistles and bright pink fireweed.  The wind is blowing hard and steady.  We arrive at the White Lee Wind Farm.  The first impression is war of the worlds.  Two hundred and fifty white wind turbines go on for miles, most of them in operation.   The scale fools you until you see people standing at the bottom of a turbine and they look like ants. We stop at the Visitors Centre and see the displays on wind power.  We learn that it is more complicated than just having a giant fan turning in the breeze.  All the turbines are operated by remote control.  They can be rotated 360 degrees and the blade angles changed.  The exhibition is very impression with hands on interactives.  Scottish Power has a goal to go all green with their energy in the next decades, the young students who speak with us are proud and excited by this operation.  The Centre is equivalent to a US Leed Certified building using various forms of natural energy to operate.  And of course, they serve tea and chocolate slices.  So we imbibe because we must do what we can to help the economy.  The view from the deck is breath taking.  Wide open moor with aliens turning in the breeze.  We are sunny but distant view is clouded, we can just make out the hills around Troon (sits on the Atlantic) and the peaks of the island of Aran. In Scotland we are never more that 50 miles from the Atlantic or North Sea). A drive through another favorite place, the conservation village of Eaglesham, pronounced Eaglesem.  The historic Wishing Well tea shop is still there as is the well known Goldsmith/Jewelry store and little stone kirk.  There is large open grass and tree green that cannot be built on.  In fact, we believe the village has zero growth ordinances and the historic buildings must be maintained on the outside as original.  On to dinner at a small Italian restaurant on the Ayr Road, Oscars.  Needless to say the wait staff get a friendly work out from us.  It’s a joyful and delicious meal.  Our private driver, McLean, leads us back home for the night.  But we can’t give up yet, we must torture our hosts with games of Euchre with rules that defy logic.  They are gracious, but remain confuse.  Big day tomorrow, heading for Edinburgh to meet up with our bus tour.  The sunny day is gone, there is a storm brewing.  Nighty night.